Google removes 'thousands' of hacked celebrity photos

Google insist they have removed ''tens of thousands'' of hacked celebrity pictures from their websites.

The online giant were threatened with a $100 million lawsuit by lawyers acting for over a dozen of the female stars - which include Jennifer Lawrence, Cara Delevingne, Rihanna and Amber Heard - whose private accounts were hacked and had personal images uploaded online.

But despite accusations otherwise, the company insist they have been working hard to remove the photographs from all of their sites since requests were made.

The company's spokesperson told the New York Post newspaper's Page Six column: ''We've removed tens of thousands of pictures - within hours of the requests being made - and we have closed hundreds of accounts. The internet is used for many good things. Stealing people's private photos is not one of them.''

Lawyer Marty Singer had sent a strongly-worded letter to Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, as well as Eric Schmidt and Google lawyers accusing them of ''blatantly unethical behaviour'' in failing to remove the images - which were first posted on websites Reddit and 4Chan - and ''making millions from the victimisation of women.''

Lawyer Marty Singer has written a sternly-worded letter to Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, as well as Eric Schmidt and Google lawyers accusing them of ''blatantly unethical behaviour''.

In the letter, the lawyer stated his firm sent a notice to remove the images four weeks ago, and several more since, but many of the photos are still on BlogSpot and YouTube, which are both owned by Google.

He added: ''Google knows the images are hacked stolen property, private and confidential photos and videos unlawfully obtained and posted by pervert predators who are violating the victims' privacy rights ... Yet Google has taken little or no action to stop these outrageous violations.

''Because the victims are celebrities with valuable publicity rights you do nothing - nothing but collect millions of dollars in advertising revenue ... as you seek to capitalise on this scandal rather than quash it.''